3 DAYS DOWN THE PIT AND 3 DAYS PLAY - UNDEREMPLOYMENT IN THE EAST MIDLAND COALFIELDS BETWEEN THE WARS

Conflicting interpretations of economic and social conditions in inter -war Britain are a staple diet of the historiography of the period. Ca n it be best characterized as one of social deprivation and economic d ecay or of social and economic improvement? The level of unemployment and its effects on those who experienced it is a critical element in t he debate and this study will contribute to it in a number of ways. It will, through a case study of the East Midland coalfields, emphasize that underemployment (or short-time working) has been comparatively ne glected in accounts of unemployment and the ''real'' incidence of the latter therefore underestimated. Moreover, the effects of underemploym ent were no less real in terms of depressing living standards than mor e permanent forms of unemployment. The traditional view of the relativ ely prosperous underemployed East Midlands' miner compared to his full y employed Durham or South Wales counterpart is, therefore, no longer tenable, The view, popularized recently by Benjamin and Kochin, that t his form of unemployment was voluntary in nature will also be question ed as will the generalization that miners' trade unions preferred wage maintenance to maximising employment levels in their industrial relat ions strategies. Trade union officers gave a high priority to achievin g an employment situation which combined work spreading and the receip t of statutory unemployment benefit by their members. The partial fail ure of these endeavours to mitigate the full impact of short-time work ing on miners' income is further evidence of the need to qualify the ' 'optimistic'' interpretation of living standards in inter-war Britain.